Ceramics Lab: Slip from Scratch
Ceramics Lab: Slip from Scratch
10% off for all studio members, simply log into your account before checking out and enter code DUSTY
Ceramics Lab is led by artist and ceramicist Rachel Kurdynowska whose research explores the origin and structure of ceramic materials to better understand their practical application and poetics.
Saturday Mornings, 10:30am-12:30pm
3rd-24th June
In a meditative group class setting, during four 2-hour sessions, you will make clay slip from scratch through the use of clay powders and the optional addition of oxide as colourant. This will lead you on to create sculptural forms from clay to explore your slips as decoration and alteration of the clay body.
These sessions will help you to better understand the behaviour of ceramic materials through their deconstruction, and you will leave with a foundation of knowledge so that you feel confident to create your own slip recipes.
All materials will be included in the price of the workshop, though we do encourage you to bring your own clay samples if you are interested in clay foraging and trying out your own finds. The cost of bisque firing is also included in the price, where you may then take your piece away, or glaze and fire it in our studio at an additional cost.
| Week 1 | Introduction to what what slip is in terms of process, materials and tools, with show and tell through objects: exampling the clay body with or without slip, clay shards, images of interesting slip work. During this session you will make your own slip that will be used during the remaining sessions. |
| Week 2 | You will be shown examples of different ways that you can apply your slip to clay such as: Paper resist, Slip marbling, Feathering, Inlay. You will then begin making and conceiving your own clay object(s) ready to continue the following week. |
| Week 3 | This session will be experimental and free flowing, where you will have dedicated time to create one or more clay objects that provide a good surface area for you to explore different methods of applying slip. |
| Week 4 |
For this final session you will have a small recap looking at ways to apply slip, before spending the entire session adding slip to your prepared clay object(s). |
Rachel Kurdynowska is an artist and ceramicist with an in-depth knowledge across a wide variety of materials and processes, including but not limited to, ceramics, sculpture, casting, painting, drawing, film, and natural material production. This vast experience allows her to approach making and creative engagement in an unconventional way that has been described as “side-ways”. A merging of materials and creative narratives often inspires her to extend her practice into the form of untraditional and exploratory workshops. These have involved returning clay to the earth, cake, the reading of found text, and a medieval banquet. There is usually a focus towards meditative processes, the use of naturally sourced materials, that encourage a new way to think about making.
Rachel is a tutor in ceramics, Artist Associate at SCVA and freelance facilitator for various arts organisations across East Anglia and beyond. Current research includes wild clay, wood firing and sculptural narratives. She works from her home studio, Easton Pottery, in Norwich.
